Black Ops 2: Zombies (Die Rise Guide)

Blog Disclaimer

Please note that this blog will be assuming that you have the basic knowledge of Black Ops 2 Zombies in general. If there is a term or something that you do not understand, please refer to the following link to learn all the basics and advanced terminology and strategies used in Zombies.

Time to Cash in!

Die Rise, like Tranzit and Buried, has a bank, and it is linked to the other two maps. Always be sure to deposit money into it whenever you can. Starting this map with the extra funds will help greatly, and having the extra in there is not a bad thing, especially if you end up dying or just plain losing all of your perks and weapons.

(Bank maximum caps at 250,000)

Power On!

Get the power on as soon as you can. When you first spawn, there is an emergency elevator in which you can take directly down to a hidden hallway where you can jump over to the power room (door costs 750)! Why bother, you say? Well, for starters, the Gun Refrigerator and the Bank are right across the jump, right outside of the power room. Also, there's another thing. Every several rounds, the map has what are commonly known as "Leaper Rounds". These rounds give you a Max Ammo at the end, and also sends a bunch of leaping Mutations (The "Smoke" Crawlers from Black Ops 1 Zombies) that like to surround and attack their prey in unison. These pesky critters do 1/2 the damage regular zombies do, but they're faster and harder to hit. If you don't have the power on, there's a 70% chance they show up in round 4, but won't show up later than round 6. However, if you turn on the power early (say, round 1), there will be a 40% chance they show up in round 5, and no later than round 7. This will give you much more time to prepare, and get everything in order.

As an added bonus, if you can turn on the power and get to the roof in round 1, you can obtain the trophy/achievement, "Facing The Dragons", in which you stand at the top of the roof tower and look at the two dragon billboards in round 1. If you or someone on the team has money in the bank, it will be best for the whole team to get everything done right off the bat (i.e. obtaining perks/weapons and building the Tramplesteam). Doing this will give you an enormous advantage to attacking this map!

Your Greatest Buildable Asset

You can build two things in this map on Buildable Tables. The first is the Tramplesteam, and the second is the wonder weapon, Squiliquifier. The most important of the two is the Tramplesteam. The Tramplesteam (or Tramp) is the item that watches your back, and also takes you to places that can drastically allow you to push far into the game (i.e. Jumping between buildings, obtaining items and getting ammo fast).

There are 4 parts to the Tramp: Engine, Flag, Spring and Screen. Parts for the Tramp can be found in the room that you start the game in. Any parts you don't find, you'll find in the hallway just outside the door. The diagram below will show you the locations of the parts, and the hallway outside is completely self-explanatory. Now, there are 3 different ways you can build the Tramp, and each way has a different result. Depending on how it is built, you can have just a plain machine, or a robust, long-lasting tool. Here they are:

Everyone grabs a part and throws them on. (Breaks in 10 hits from a zombie)

Everyone grabs a part and Engine is put on last. (Breaks in 15 hits)

ONLY Marlton (The Nerd) builds it and puts on the Engine last. (Breaks in 28 hits)

WARNING! If you are turning on the power in round 1 first, be sure you do NOT swap out a Tramplesteam part for a key after you exit the emergency elevator. You will permanently lose the Tramplesteam for the whole game if the emergency elevator was not sent back up before you jump to turn on the power. This is the biggest mistake made by newbies, and is one of the many things that people trolling you will do! Once you have the Tramplesteam, you can launch yourself back to get a key later!

The Engine sits on top of the red desk on the right.

Communication Is Key

If you don't have a microphone, go out to Staples or Best Buy and get yourself one for $5 (Craigslist for Xbox players). If you can't communicate with your teammates, you'll end up butting heads and getting each other killed. Story maps require full team cooperation in order to be conquered. Many sections of Die Rise are maze-like, and if you can't tell your teammates where you are, they'll either ignore you, die trying to find you, or not make it in time, unable to find out exactly where you are. On top of that, you won't receive help from any decent players if you don't have a microphone.

Not the Best, but Good for Newbies

Leap into the Fray

Leapers are incredibly annoying and fierce. However, there's plenty of ways to take them down. At this point, many will say, "What's the point of this section? We'll just shoot them up." Well, there is a special condition in these "Leaper Rounds" that will be extremely important, especially to those who have no money in the bank. If you do not shoot, and only kill the Leapers with melee, claymores, grenades and/or Tramplesteam, your team will receive 2,000 points and a random free perk in addition to the Max Ammo. Not only will this save you points from buying perks, but if you already have 4, it will allow you to have more. There are a total of 6 perks in this map, and you can have it all if you just don't touch that trigger.

Know the Spawn Areas

Being both a Story map, and just an enormous map, zombie spawn points are abundant, and they are EVERYWHERE. Pay attention to where they spawn, and where they tend to go from those spawns. This will allow you to better assess your situation, and also keep you from getting caught off guard.

Start with the Walls

Everybody's first instinct is to always hit the box. Don't bother. Wait until later rounds to hit the box. Believe it or not, this map does contain 2 wall weapons that are the best two made for this game. The first is the SVU sniper rifle and the second is the AN-94 assault rifle. These guns, even to the most inexperienced players, can easily hold you up for the first 20 rounds without being Pack-A-Punched, and the first 40 rounds when Pack-A-Punched. The best part? You don't have to waste Max Ammo bonuses because you can buy ammo right off the wall (See my Tips and Tricks blog for information on LIMITED BONUSES in the "Don't Be Greedy" section). These two weapons are powerful, and rightfully so. The SVU's power is second only to the DSR50 (not counting wonder weapons), and the AN-94, though slightly weaker than the Galil, has the most ammunition and largest clip of all assault rifles in CoD: Zombies (Weapon Stats available near the end of Tips and Tricks blog).

How many times have you fallen to your death already?

Don't be too Hasty

Think before you move. Unlike any other map, you can fall to your death at any point in time. There are missing walls, gaps to jump and moving elevators. One wrong step, and you plummet to your death, and the loss of 10% of your points on-hand. If you're going somewhere, be sure you pay attention to your surroundings. Your perfect streak can turn into nothing in a heartbeat if you're not careful.

A majority of downs and deaths in this map has come from rushing and not paying attention to where you are going. Remember. Keep Calm and Kill Zombies.

No elevator = don't go any further.

What's your opinion of Who's Who?

OMG! It's the best thing ever!

It's a nuisance sometimes, but it's also saved my butt plenty of times.

Treyarch is just trolling us at this point! That machine needs to burn!

Not so Perky

As you know, Die Rise has an exclusive perk known as Who's Who. It is a perk that, if you are downed, you gain a 2nd "Ghost" body in which you can use to pick yourself back up. HOWEVER, this is still a body, and can still get downed. The only thing you retain is any claymores you had upon downing, and how many points you had. If you're confident enough, or if your body is just completely surrounded by the whole army of the undead, you can choose to let your main body disappear, and your "Ghost" body will become your new one. Doing so may help you live longer, but there's a downside to letting that happen. First off, if you use semtex, your 2nd body downgrades back to frag, and you'll no longer be able to buy semtex or even get grenade replenishments every round, even if you die later and respawn. On the upside, if you do manage to revive your body (or if someone does it for you) you can retain all your previous perks/equipment/weapons except Who's Who. If you are playing solo, it is highly recommended that you do everything in your power to avoid this perk.

And if you think that was it, you're wrong. If you should down on an elevator, you main body automatically disappears, and it almost treats it like a respawn in a random spot (if you're the last one standing or in Solo). On other occasions, your 2nd body spawns next to the live player closest to the top of the player listing (like spawning after a round you died, it's in the following order: white, blue, yellow and green).

A True Drink of the Devil

Source

Perks Beyond Sight

On top of the 6 perks you can buy/receive in this game. Story-based maps have other perks which you cannot see. You cannot earn or lose these in a different zombie mode, Origins or Mob of the Dead. It is purely for when you're forced to play as Stulanger, Misty, Russman and Marlton. Unlike regular perks, these are only earned after certain conditions are met, and you can lose them very easily. Maintaining these after earning them are a true test of skill. Passive perks (aka Perma-perks) found in Die Rise are exactly the same in Tranzit, and also transfer to and from Buried. In the following chart, you will see the ones that are important to look out for, and how to get them. You'll know you have earned them by the presence of green smoke and your character will say something about it.

Passive Perks Worth Getting

Perk

What it does

How to earn it

How to lose it

Perk Refund

Get 1,000 points back after buying a perk from a perk machine.

Go prone within 0.59 seconds of drinking a perk. Must be done 12-16 times in a row with at least 5 different perks. (Doesn't have to be in 1 game)

Not going prone within 0.59 seconds after drinking a perk OR going down while drinking a perk

Super Revive

W/O Quick-Revive, you can revive as if you did. W/ Quick-Revive, revive someone in 1/2 a second.

Revive a person 8-15 times in a single game, the player having had kills between revivals.

Stop reviving someone before the revival bar is full.

Super Jugg

Perfect for newbies. W/O Jugg, it's like you have it. W/ Jugg, it takes a LOT of hits to take you down.

Get downed and revived 3-8 times in 1 game.

Make it to round 15 (if you earn this perk after round 15, it carries over to the next game)

Deadshot

Doubles damage done by a heashot, increases headshot accuracy and weapons aim closer to head upon ADS.

Multi-Headshots on a total of 10 zombies. (Doesn't all have to be in the same shot, but your total kills in multi-headshots have to equal 10 zombies.

Go 1 round without getting a headshot, 10 consecutive explosive kills or 25 kills that are not headshots.

Long Shot

Get 300 extra points for every kill with a sniper rifle.

8 kills with a sniper rifle from 40+ meters away OR 3 consecutive headshots without missing from 40+ meters away OR 1 Heashot with the NEXT bullet right after you lose the perk from 40+ .meters away.

Miss 3 shots with a sniper rifle in a row (switching weapons or starting new games do not reset the counter)

Go 1 round without building at least 6 barrier boards or go down while building barriers

Super Deadshot

Further doubles the damage headshots do.

Get 50 headshots without losing Deashot passive perk.

60 seconds pass after earning this perk OR getting a non-headshot kill

Half-Price

During the active time of a Double Points, ANYTHING you spend money on will only charge you 1/2 the amount of points

Go 3 Double Points in a row, earning at least 2,000 points and without repairing windows, spending money or touching the bank.

If you don't spend at least 2,000 points in 1 purchase (4,000+ prior to 1/2 price) during each Double Points after earning and/or repairing windows during Double Points.

Red Insta-Kill

During Inst-Kill, there will be a red skull. During that time, any zombie that touches you instantly dies, giving you 50 points.

Go 3 Insta-Kills in a row without killing any zombies and without getting hit. (NOTE: Melee counts as killing, too.)

Getting a kill with anything but melee during Insta-Kill. Getting hit by a zombie during Insta-Kill. (NOTE: Red Insta-Kill only kills up to 4 zombies at a time. If you run into a group, you WILL get hit.)

Watch for the Killbox

For those who are unfamiliar with the term, a "killbox" is an area where you go to die. In Die Rise, there are various areas that are considered Killboxes that bring in the most zombies and zombie spawns. From round 20 and on, these are literally places you go to die, if you're not in-between rounds.

Tramplesteam Room: 6 spawns right in this room. Tower spawn and 3 2nd floor spawns from the roof of the other building come straight to this room. All 15 spawns on the two floors above also come straight into this room, ignoring other players 90% of the time.

Power Room: This area has almost no room to maneuver, and you have 14 spawn points that go here, 4 of which encompass the 3 walls of this room, and 7 right outside the door.

Suicide Corner: This is an area that is literally only 10 feet by 10 feet. On the roof and below, this area is serviced by 10 spawn points, all of which COMPLETELY surround you in all directions, including above and below you.

Great Vantages

There are many places to this huge map, but there are few that are good to be in. Here's a list of a few places you can go to, and how you can use them to your advantage to get further in rounds.

Let's start with Train areas:

Sushi Bar (Difficulty: Hard): This place is a little small, but it has enough open space to run a train of zombies as long as your teammates aren't too close to your area. A fairly easy location, but becomes near impossible by round 45, unless you have a separate party helping split the traffic of zombies. Surprisingly enough, prior to round 40, you can easily run 2 trains in this area.

Inverted Box Room (default Mystery Box room. Difficulty: Medium): This area is wide and long with 2 obstacles to help you slow down zombies. Despite the extremely uneven ground, which can lower you accuracy, this spot funnels zombie spawns well, and allows for good movement to run large trains of zombies. Becomes exceptionally near impossible by round 42 in solo, and 47 in multi-player.

Buddha Room (aka Red Room. Difficulty: Very Easy): This is the best spot to be to run trains of zombies. With good timing, equipment and teamwork, you can easily use a Tramplesteam to launch yourself over to get more AN-94 ammo.

The Roof (around the downward ramp. Difficulty: Medium-Hard): This spot is one of the hardest to Train, unless you have another player on the roof with you. When done right, this can allow for high kills and headshots as the number of actual zombie traffic is far less than the spawn points that intersect it. Despite having 19 spawn points converging onto this location, they all funnel into 3 different paths and 1 window in the path. The most important thing to remember is this. ALWAYS RUN CLOCKWISE because you will get trapped very easily going counter-clockwise. Also, if there's a swarm, head for the window, but do it in a large zig-zag so that you don't have to go all the way to the window, bunch the zombies together and run around them without getting yourself (or the person camping there) trapped.

Now let's go over to the good camping areas:

The Roof (under the tower. Difficulty: Medium-Hard): Underneath the tower, there is a single window that faces out to a good half of the roof. Just simply place your Tramplesteam at this window and watch as all the zombies just come from one direction. This spot also is directly in front of the train spot. The 4 paths that zombies come from for that spot become 1 if you are camping at this spot. Useful until round 30, higher if you have someone running trains while you camp there.

Below the Roof (next to Suicide Corner. Difficulty: Easy-Medium): Suicide corner is isolated by a long hallway, but beside that hallway is a 2nd one with 2 buyable doors at the end. Staring directly at the double elevators, this section is a mirror image of its roof counter-part with 2 exceptions. One, it is a more narrow and longer hallway. Two, there is a loop "escape" area to your right that you can fill with claymores in case you get overrun. Useful until round 30, higher if you have a partner and a second group is on the roof.

Outside The Showers (2nd floor when jumping across from the Buddha Room. Difficulty: Hard): This section is a bit tricky, but not too hard in early rounds. First off, there are two double-doors that you can buy to open. NEVER open the one on the left. If all doors are closed, simply sit on the right corner, at the windows next to the bank. If the right side door is open, simply go the left, and place a Tramplesteam in the middle of the left double doors while standing behind the Tramp, facing the bank. Becomes impossible by round 27.

Buddha Room (aka Red Room. Difficulty: Medium): This room has a main floor and a balcony walkway. Despite being exceptionally easy for a runner, a camper's life is a completely different story here. Should you be trapped or while someone is running a train, take the ramp up to this walk way, and stay in the corner on the left with a Tramplesteam in front of you, shooting zombies that come your way. This section is the most narrow camping spot to get zombies. If someone is running a Train, traffic will be much lighter, too. Allowing you to save ammo and be more accurate with your shots. Good for as long as someone's running the Train. The most common mistake in medium to high rounds (20+) is that players up here tend to waste ammo shooting the Train runner's zombies instead of the ones heading for them. This usually results in the Tramplesteam(s) getting destroyed and the camping player(s) getting downed, or the camping players jumping down and getting everyone downed by getting the runner caught between two swarms.

PDW Room (Difficulty: Medium-Hard): In this room, you merely just put your Tramp on the window, and just shoot down the hall. There will be occasional zombies coming from the elevator shaft next to you, and from the escalator, if the couch was moved. Becomes exceptionally difficult by round 25, or round 35 if you were smart enough NOT to remove the couch from the escalator.

Remington Room (Difficulty: Medium-Hard): This is the longest section to be getting zombies in with a fairly narrow hallways. While it is arguably one of the most narrow hallways, it also is not straight, throwing off the aim of some players. You basically stand in front of the elevator shaft with a Tramplesteam on the window next to you. If you stand correctly in front of the elevator shaft, it will not spawn any zombies from it. This is, by far, the most popular camping spot on this map. However, like all other camping spots, you're going to run out of ammo, and fast. Also, there are no weapons remotely close to you, and you will have an empty shaft right behind you 90% of the time. Good until round 28, round 40 if you're skill is high enough and you have the right weapons.

Taming the Squid

As everyone knows, the Squiliquifier is the exclusive Wonder Weapon in this map, and the second ever that is a Buildable. However, knowing how to use it is a whole new thing. Almost everyone always haphazardly tries to build and grab this weapon, only to lose it later by dying, or wasting it by shooting it at random like a normal gun.

There are several different things that everyone should remember about this weapon:

There is only 50 shots in this weapon.

Kills zombies in 1 hit.

Zombies killed by this weapon kill others near it.

Creates a slippery surface for both zombies AND humans.

Surfaces remain slippery for a few seconds after the sludge is no longer visible.

There are a lot of people who don't know how to properly use this great piece of hardware, and I'm here to give you all the down-low on proper usage of it:

NEVER shoot this sucker at elevator shaft areas. This slippery area does not allow you to stop once you're on it, and you'll be sending your teammates and yourself to a 1-way trip to hell if you don't know it's on the floor.

NEVER shoot this near the edge of the buildings as the same result will occur.

ALWAYS use on a large group, especially if there's a constant stream of zombies coming for you. When the first zombie gets hit, it explodes, creating a sludge field. Other zombies hit by the explosion follow the same fate with a couple seconds of delay.

ALWAYS try to hit the first time and NEVER spray-fire unless you're trapped in a corner. Because of the effects stated above, perfect timing and good aiming can allow you to kill anywhere from 10 to over 100 kills with just ONE shot from this launcher, allowing maximum survival time, and full usage of ammo without wasting.